SEA Trip Day 5 – Beef Bone Tea and Kaya Spread
We hadn’t explored Penang Island too much the night before, but we had a flight to catch so we woke up early morning to run around. Unfortunately our plans to visit the botanical gardens at 6 were ruined by a sudden downpour that ended at 8, giving us just enough time to walk around the colonial area (and a fort!!) near city hall and along the coast to Gurney Drive for dem fancy buildings and hawker food stands. (It was a little funny having such run down looking food places right next to giant hotels and banks).
There were a lot of people doing morning exercises in the parks sprinkled along the coastal walkway, and some setting up fishing poles along the wall. Some parts of the walkway are more developed than others, and you see a lovely contrast of trees (with swings and lights hangings from the branches!) broken cobblestones, and paved roads along the coast.
Our lovely morning walk ended at a one of the hawker stalls called Zealand Seafood Restaurant. My search for bak kut teh ended here, as we ordered a bowl and some tea for the both of us. Bak kuh teh (beef bone tea for literal Chinese translation) is a specialty of Singapore and Malaysia. Meat is stewed with herbs for a long period of time to produce an wonderfully delicious broth (as in my-mouth-is-so-happy-and-my-life-is-complete delicious) that you eat with rice or noodles. Our bak kuh teh (which had chunks of fatty meat, bean curd skin, tofu, mushrooms, and beef balls) was served with Chinese fried donuts (you tiao) and yam rice. We washed our meal down with oolong tea and rushed out to the airport.
We took a taxi (there’s a lot of public transportation around the Georgetown area, but anywhere else, not so much. It’s also really slow) to first pick up our bags at the hostel, then head to the airport. Our driver pointed out parts of little India that we had missed, as well as different “heritage landmarks” (basically attractions with historic meaning) that we passed by. He also taught us the meaning of the different color taxis. Blue taxis are considered executive taxis, are always metered, and can take you anywhere in Malaysia and even abroad to Thailand or Singapore. Red taxis are a little less governed by laws. They’re considered budget taxis, and sometimes won’t turn on the meter so you either have to negotiate a price or find a new taxi. They must stay within the city limits.
As a general note for taking taxis in the Georgetown area – they’re not very common and can actually be hard to find outside of the hotel/business sectors. You’ll most likely have to phone in for a cab (though you could get lucky). Georgetown to Penang airport is about 40 ringgit, which takes you from the north end of the island to the south. Most trips, in terms of attractions, should be about 15 – 50 ringgit, depending on where you go. There are also bicycle carts, which are a little more readily available around the non schmancy areas.
At the airport, I had my first taste of kaya (which apparently means rich) spread on waffles and I’m not sure I’m a fan. It has a bit of an odd toasted coconut aftertaste.
The flight from Penang to KL was kind of awesome. It’s a short flight, less than an hour, and part of our trip to Phuket (yay transfers…). We flew over the Penang bridge (I believe it’s the longest bridge in Malaysia?) and some fishing squares, which was pretty cool from up there. The landscape is really green, and there were farms that looked like contour maps because of the layers cut into the hills. The trip had scenery comparable to our train ride in (with the added plus of being much shorter and more comfortable).
Our stop at KL Internstional involved some curry mee (hotchacha spiciness), milk tea, and running around all the duty free stores. There are way too many chocolate and alcohol stores, with the popular kids being Toblerone and Ferrero Rocher (there was a Nutella stand!!!).
My greatest achievement of the day involved me sitting in the Emergency Exit row during the flight to Phuket. My age wasn’t questioned and I enjoyed dat legroom :D.
Travel tip:
Skyscanner.com is a pretty handy website for looking up cheap flights, but I recommend looking directly at the airline’s website because it could be cheaper. Sometimes there are hidden fees from the providers, and those along with currency changing will push up the price. We almost bought tickets from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai for about 350 when it was only 200 from Laoairlines.com.